We all take photographs, but mostly we don't do very much with
them. However, the internet is a great place to put them. In this article I'll
refer you to a few places that you can put them, and how to link to them,
either on web pages or in a weblog.
Flickr is probably the most well known photograph sharing site
on the internet. There is a free version and a commercial version, which costs
$24.95 per year. Using Flickr is very simple. Simply get yourself a free
account to start with, and you're ready to go. The easiest way to upload
photographs is to also use the Flickr uploadr utility which is a very quick
download. Simply decide which pictures you want to put into your account and
the uploader takes care of the rest. If the image is very large it will also
offer to resize for you automatically; you don't have to do anything at
all. Once you have uploaded your pictures there is a whole bunch of things
you can do with them. Firstly, you can 'tag' your pictures, by adding in words
or phrases that are appropriate for the picture. There is no central listing;
it's entirely up to you to decide for yourself. Secondly, you can create
your own 'sets' of pictures, so you can have a set for family photographs for
example, or holiday snaps. You can tag photographs as appropriate and they get
added to the appropriate set. Groups or pools of photographs are however
the most interesting element. You can search for groups that interest you, join
the group (adding an RSS feed if you like) and then include your photographs in
the pool. That way people will get to see your work, and they can also comment
on them, add them to their list of favourites and so on. I'd strongly recommend
doing this, or hardly anyone will find your works of art. However, if you
prefer you can block general access to your pictures and limit them to specific
groups, such as your family.
Flickr is also an excellent way to keep up
to date with what is happening; if there is a major event then people will
photograph it and put their pictures up for others to see. There are currently
almost 1,500 photographs of the devastation caused by
Hurricane Katrina
for example.
All told, it's an excellent resource, and it's the primary
place that I put my
photographs.
Another resource that I've used is Fotopic. This is also a free
resource, and you can store up to about 2,500 photographs. There are a variety
of ways that you can upload your photographs, by FTP, directly from the web
using Java and so on. Again, very easy to do. I particularly like the fact that
you can upload a whole album in one go if you so desire. When you first start
uploading, your photographs have to be checked, and for each set that get
passed (and I've never had any stopped yet) you get karma points. This makes it
less likely that your next set will be delayed, and therefore will be instantly
available.
Fotopic is better than Flickr in that there isn't a limit on
the number you can upload in a given time period, but it's not nearly as strong
on tagging, and there are very few groups. You can only create a group if you
are a premium member, which I think is a mistake on their part.
People
can, if you wish, comment on your photographs, but again you can limit access
if you prefer. There are also some useful statistics you can put on your page
(most viewed photograph for example).
I tend to use Fotopic for
personal/family photographs and snapshots, rather than any of the 'arty' stuff
that I might put on Flickr. You can view
my album and get a feel for how
it works.
If you're more of a photographer than most of us, you might want
to share your work with other photographers. photoSIG has free/commercial
memberships.
What is really clever about this one is that you can
critique other peoples work. They can then rate your critique, and give you
points. When you have enough points you can then post photographs yourself.
It's a great way to get involved and to keep you on the site. It's a superb
site if you want to learn from others and get their advice.
If you
prefer messing around with your photographs there is a sister site called
artSIG that works on exactly the
same principle.
While PBase is technically a free system, it has strict
limitations on what you can do with it; there are limitations to amount you can
upload (10 megs), and you can't link directly to images. After 30 days you
can't upload either, and photographs may be removed. Consequently it's not a
system that I've used myself.
This is a much more flexible system. It's free to join, with 25
megabytes of space available (going up to 1 gigbyte for a commercial account).
It's really designed for people who want to add images to their weblogs,
message boards and eBay for example.
Uploading is easy and done
directly from the website. Once the photograph has been uploaded you get a
series of three links; URL, HTML tags for websites/eBay and an IMG link for
adding the photograph to a bulletin board system.
This is another
service that I've used now and then and it's simple and easy to use.
If
your main interest is in putting images onto sites/bulletin boards, this is the
service that I'd go for.
Other
options
There are literally hundreds of different resources that you can
use; this is just a tiny overview of ones that I've used or that my friends
have. If you have a particular favourite that I haven't mentioned, do email me
and let me know.
